


To Deserve

by Daydreamer5187



Series: What We Can Never Understand [3]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Bit of angst but not too much, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Protective Washington, Short One Shot, Washingtons POV, Wedding Fluff, introspective, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 12:53:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14545194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daydreamer5187/pseuds/Daydreamer5187
Summary: "When Eliza Hamilton's letter was delivered to him he had no clue what it would contain."If there was one thing that George Washington would accomplish in his war it would be to save Alexander Hamilton, in every way possible.Or: George Washington receives a letter from the new bride of his aide, and it prompts some introspection and memories on his part.





	To Deserve

**Author's Note:**

> Alright so OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING. All the reviews I got on the last chapter of "Look at Where We Started" was amazingly overwhelming and I WISH I had a completed chapter to post tonight instead of this, but I don't and I am literally so undeserving of all of you awesome sauce people out there. 
> 
> This is a little one shot I cooked up tonight, because lots of my fics are pretty dark, or are going to be soon, (whoops; spoilers), and this seemed like a nice little break from all of that and a nice little piece for all my amazing supporters to read while they wait. :) 
> 
> I own nothing, I'm no where near as genius as Lin-Manuel.
> 
> [Come yell at me on Tumblr.](https://writing-thoughts-andallthatjazz.tumblr.com)

When Eliza Hamilton’s letter was delivered to him he had no clue what it would contain. Trepidation crept its slimy claws all over his chest as he slit the envelope open; Eliza Hamilton should have no reason to contact her husband’s employer. 

He remembered their wedding well, it wasn’t often he got to see one of his men married. Many did not want to find someone to love only to have them taken in the war, or sometimes it was just a matter of not getting invited. After all, it hadn’t been Hamilton himself to invite George to his wedding, but Philip Schuyler. 

_“Hamilton.” The boy looked up from his work, his quill stopping its dance._

_“Yes, Your Excellency?”_

_“What is this?” George held up the parchment embellished with decorative floral swirls and impressive calligraphy reading;_

__The household of general Philip Schuyler  
requests the honour of your presence as a witness to  
the marriage of 

Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler 

On the date of the Fourteenth of December  
Seventeen and Eighty  
At two o’clock in the afternoon

Schuyler Mansion 

We sincerely hope you may be in attendance  
to witness this joyful union __

_The boy’s mouth made a sort of ‘o’ shape as he stared at the invitation, well and truly caught off guard._

_“Because it looks to me like a wedding invitation to a wedding that I knew nothing of,” George continued, pretending to examine the invitation more closely. Hamilton stood from his desk, still slightly shellshocked._

_“I meant no disrespect, Your Excellency, none at all. I should’ve realized that General Schuyler would be a personal friend of yours, or else I would have immediately invited you.”_

_George was still slightly unnerved that his closest aide had been engaged and he had been none the wiser._

_“I knew that you were seeing the girl, I did not know that you had proposed to her,” Washington spoke under his breath, running his thumb over the corner of the invitation._

_“Well-I-,” he blushed, biting at his lips like the boy he was, “I did, in April, when her father gave me his blessing to do so.”_

_George’s eyes widened on their own accord. April? April! The boy had been engaged for an entire eight months and had spoken not a word of it?_

_“Why did you not tell me, even in just conversation, son?”_

_Alexander mumbled his almost obligatory “I’m not your son,” before continuing, “I did not want to waste your time on something as meaningless as your aide’s nuptials.”_

_“I would hardly call it ‘waste.’”_

_“I should have realized you would want to see your friend’s daughter married sir, I apologize.”_

_There was a soft silence before Washington’s voice filled the room in a low whisper._

_“I’d quite like to see_ you _married, Hamilton.”_

_George could see the statement try to sink in to the boy’s head, and when it did, it was not rejection in the boy’s expression but a smile._

To think he’d almost missed Alexander’s wedding because the boy didn’t think he was _important_ enough to him, somedays when it was just he and Alexander talking after hours it felt like Alexander was the most important thing in his life. 

He was so shy sometimes, so timid for someone who wrote so ferociously. He’d chew his lip or roll his quill between his fingers, and he seemed so young to be a man with a wife and a supposed death wish. 

And good Lord, he’d been nervous on his wedding day. 

_Washington entered the sitting room to find Alexander pacing, his hands worrying themselves in front him. When George had imagined having his own children, he’d often fantasized a moment just like this one._

_“Hamilton,” he made his presence known. Hamilton immediately straightened at attention, exerting the cool solider he was known to be._

_“Sir.” Hamilton bowed to him, always proper, but still carried his worry lines._

_“At ease, solider,” George chuckled, “I am here not as your commanding officer but as a friend.”_

_“Yes sir,” Hamilton replied, relaxing on a minuscule level. “It is an honour and a pleasure to have you in attendance sir.”_

_“It is an honour to see you married,” George replied. “You needn’t seem calm for me, I am no stranger to wedding day nerves.”_

_Alexander cast his commanding officer a glance, and he seemed so lost, and scared, it took George off guard. He seemed like a boy, nervous for his first day of school, not a man about to be married._

_“It’s just- I can’t- I don’t know how…” he stumbled for words, gesturing vainly to his neck where his ties were left unfastened. “I don’t think I can do this.”_

_He was so nervous, and George knew the feeling. This was the day an entire new beginning of your life was supposed to start; a wife, children, a family. To a twenty-three year old solider this could seem quite overwhelming. So overwhelming it seemed, that being unable to fasten your knots was a legitimate reason to question the wedding._

_“Nonsense, come here,” he finally spoke, meeting Hamilton halfway. “You can do anything that you put your mind to son, I know that more than most.” George began to tie his knots for him, trying to concentrate on the intricate steps instead of the familiarity such an action prompted._

_“I can’t give her what she deserves,” his officer muttered, so soft that George had barely heard it._

_“Men can very rarely give a woman what she deserves, it is her acceptance of that that makes her deserve it so much more.” Washington, finished with his task, grasped Hamilton’s shoulders, looking at him in the eye. “And it is your best efforts for the woman you love to give her everything you possibly can that makes you deserve her.”_

_The two of them stood like that for a bit longer, seeming to pass a message on through their glances alone. Finally, Hamilton took a shuddering breath and nodded._

_“Thank you,” Alexander whispered. “I’d have no one else here, Your Excellency.”_

_George smiled at Alexander, who returned the expression albeit nervously, and straightened himself out. The boy found his resolve, and slowly opened the doors of the sitting room, going to stand his position for the ceremony._

_When George saw Alexander’s eyes water at the sight of his bride for some unfathomable reason he felt tears come to him as well._

Hamilton had returned to work a short month after his wedding, having honeymooned with his new bride at her childhood home in that time. He was so happy when he returned, gushing to the men about his wife and their home and anything he could think of. So few were married, especially at Alexander’s age, but the union had brought joy to everyone. 

March air had come suddenly, chilling their bones one moment and boiling blood the next. Washington had been glad to have his aide back, as the war seemed to pick up, despite the boys incessant requests for a command of his own. He’d just been married, was he so keen to leave a widow? 

That was something George simply could not have happen, Alexander was a little light in his life, there for the past four years and making himself a constant. He’d be dammed if he let anything happen to him. 

Finally George refocused on the cause of his wanderings, Eliza Hamilton’s letter. He unfolded the parchment slowly, almost reverently. The words danced across his eyes of their own volition, the meaning settling in his stomach like a growing ink stain. 

_To the Honourable General Washington,_  
Sir, it is of no small amount of desperation that I write this letter to you.  
My husband who is under your employ, Alexander Hamilton, as I’m sure you  
know, will not abandon his post until the war has been won, nor will he accept  
anything less than throwing himself into the battles. His loyalty to you and  
the revolution are admirable qualities, and I love him very much for them.  
However, I beg of you, please, send him home to me. Please, I know that this  
sounds as but a plea from a young bride, but he must come home; I need him home.  
He deserves a chance to meet his child. 

George reared away from the letter, rereading the condemning sentence over and over again. The rest of the letter seemed so unimportant compared to it, with Elizabeth following her statement with explanations and more pleas and apologies, all so unimportant. 

All that mattered was that she was with child, and she was begging for the life of her child’s father, for _Alexander’s_ life, because she was desperate and believed that George could save them. 

It was a striking reminder of the families left behind by his men in the war. 

Alexander’s wife was with child. He didn’t know. If George didn’t act on her request, Alexander may never meet his baby. 

But he couldn’t just send Hamilton away, the war effort needed him so desperately. They could not afford for Washington to send his best aide away on the arbitrary request of his wife, no matter how much it pained George to admit. 

Because as terrible as it was, this was _Alexander,_ not just another solider. To any other solider George would have written back, apologizing but ultimately explaining that he could not obey the request. For Alexander though, for Alexander, Washington would make sure he met his child, something George had been deprived of in his life. 

But he wouldn’t do it through unsubstantiated means, he would wait until Hamilton disobeyed him in the true Hamilton fashion, and then would send him back to his wife. 

If there was one thing that George Washington was going to achieve in this war it would be saving Alexander Hamilton. 

_“Call me son one more time!” Hamilton screamed, advancing on the general as if ready to come to blows._

_This was it, George realized, this was when he would have to send his boy away from him. And it physically pained him to do so, but Eliza was home and she was waiting and all she wanted was for her husband to come back and see his child._

_“Go home Alexander,” Washington’s voice reverberated around the room, despite it’s calm nature. Alexander opened his mouth to reply but was cut off, but George had to look away as he spoke to the boy, “that’s an order from your commander.”_

_“Sir?” He sounded so lost, so confused, so repentant. But he wasn’t George’s to keep, he promised himself, he promised, that he would get this boy back to his family. He had to, but it did not make it any less painful._

_“Go. Home.”_

**Author's Note:**

> There you have it, a short lil plot bunny that plopped into my head tonight. As I said before, I'm working on a new chapter for "Look at Where We Started" but I definitely was not going to have it ready by tonight so thus this was born. 
> 
> Tell me what you think in the comments! Reviews are my little motivation tablets that enable me to write so much for you awesome people! 
> 
> Also, if you have a request for a one shot you'd like to see done, PLEASE leave it in the comments, I absolutely love them. I might not get to it right away, but know that I will definitely get to it eventually. Love you all!
> 
>  
> 
> [Come yell at me on Tumblr.](https://writing-thoughts-andallthatjazz.tumblr.com)


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